cornell_cheme_carfandomcom-20200213-history
History of the Finance Subteam
Before the team was founded as we know it today, it was comprised of ten to fifteen students ran on a very small budget. The team spent roughly a few hundred dollars a semester out of dedicated members pockets at this time. The team was founded independent of Cornell’s AICHE chapter and this is why the separation exists to the current day. I believe the president of our AICHE chapter was uninterested in dedicating the necessary funds to competition related expenses at the time. When the university began funding and supporting project teams around campus, a need for a finance sub-team began to arise. Our records indicate in our first few years under the School of Chemical Engineering, a finance officer was simply a liaison who filled out paper work while the department handled obtaining funds for the team to spend. Finance sub-team originated near the team’s official recognition by the university. At first Finance sub-team handled all of information sub-team’s jobs. The following except explains why this was changed. The following paragraph is from the prospective of Jennifer Brenner: She told me (Steven Yeh) that Qinyi was struggling with involvement to the team and ended up leaving midway through the year. Sam Odle was begged to take over as sub-team leader. He was promised that he would only have to lead for a semester before being allowed to rejoin Electronics (eventually as Electronics Sub-team leader). Sam Tiereny was unable to adequately take on some of the administrative roles. Thus Information sub-team was created with the sole purpose of lighten the load of Woojin, who had taken on near all of the administrative work by this point as he needed to train Sam Odle in the financial paper work, try to teach Sam Tiereny what being a Senior Captain was all about as well as handle grading. Alex was selected by Woojin under the bylaws in place at the time to head up this new sub-team and handle grading, attendance the website and many of the other roles Info sub-team currently maintains. Joy took over as Finance leader as the only returning member to Finance Sub-team the following year. She was extremely busy and didn’t assign frequent deliverables inform the rest of the sub-team of most of the administrative process that she had to go through to get things done. Processing orders were frequently slow and most sub-team leaders resorted to ordering items with personal funds before seeking reimbursement. Frustrated with my lack of work, I started going to Jennifer and Brianna seeking an expanded role on the team and with the thought of potentially joining battery or fuel cell. Jennifer instead directed my enthusiasm towards finance jobs. She taught me about SAFC, our account finances, sources of income, relationship to the department, other team dynamics and other “behind the scenes” work that was done by the captain. Jennifer also got Joy to sit down with me and teach me how to order items using our account funds and handle other paperwork. In the spring, I more or less took over as acting sub-team leader. I planned and attended regionals, created a fast method for ordering things online and handled a large majority of the paperwork. The following fall I took over as sub-team leader. The rapid change of inexperienced leadership and the difficulties I faced learning how to handle the full role of finance sub-team leader especially with SAFC switching to the orgsync.com system used at the time of writing is primarily why I am going to such depth with this binder. During the lab clean up during calibrations of Spring 2014, many relevant documents were uncovered and organized. The improved organization of records and knowledge will hopefully make future sub-team leader transitions will go smoother.